Intelligent tactics in display help Audible boost conversions by 114%

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Intelligent tactics in display help Audible boost conversions by 114%

September 2017

As an Amazon.com subsidiary, Audible’s goal is to unleash the power of spoken word. The company produces and sells spoken audio entertainment and educational programming with a product range that includes digital audio books, radio and TV programs, and audio versions of magazines and newspapers. With an eye on conversions and cost per acquisition, Audible set out to drive leads and reduce costs.

Dynamic remarketing outperformed other display campaigns by 55% in cost per acquisition and delivered highest conversion rate (0.42% versus average of 0.03%)

Overall, 114% more conversions, 41% lower cost per acquisition and 93% more clicks year over year

"With the support of the Google Display Network and remarketing, we could easily increase our reach. Through specific targeting, we’re now able to reach those people who are interested in hearing the best stories but are not yet aware of Audible’s products. Sophia Skuratowicz, Marketing Manager SEM, Audible."

To achieve their aims, the Audible team got started by taking a close look at ways to improve their campaigns on the Google Display Network. They decided to test the impact of automation by rolling out Smart Display Campaigns. This approach combined several optimisation technologies to take much of the effort and guesswork out of targeting, bidding and ad creation.

Using Target CPA (tCPA) as a basis, Smart Display Campaigns optimised Audible’s bids according to the likelihood of conversion in each and every auction. Meanwhile, targeting was optimised automatically as the campaign ran, which meant ads increasingly showed where they were most likely to get the most business. Finally, to responsively fit into spaces across the Google Display Network, ads were automatically generated from building blocks provided by Audible, including headlines, descriptions, logos and images.

Audible’s next step was to launch dynamic remarketing. While standard remarketing would have made it possible to simply show ads to people who had previously visited Audible’s website, dynamic remarketing took this a step further. By initiating dynamic remarketing campaigns, the Audible team could show previous visitors ads containing the very products and services that they had been viewing on the website.

The wisdom in using these tactics soon became clear. Smart Display Campaigns produced a cost per acquisition that was 60% lower than standard display campaigns and drove 30% of conversions. In terms of cost per acquisition, dynamic remarketing outperformed other display campaigns by 55% and delivered the highest conversion rate (0.42% versus the average of 0.03%). Overall, the combined approachesdelivered 114% more conversions year over year alongside a 41% lower cost per acquisition and 93% more clicks.

“We were very positively surprised by how much impact the optimised campaign structure had on our performance”, says Sophia Skuratowicz, Marketing Manager SEM. “We were more than happy to see this uplift in such a short time”. Next on the agenda for Audible? Restructuring the entire account around a data-driven setup to make the most of the tools of automation.